Feature Pack 7

Highlights of Version 7 Feature Pack 7

New features available with WebSphere Commerce Version 7 Feature Pack 7 include: IBM Commerce Composer for WebSphere Commerce, responsive web design for the Aurora starter store, and the availability of integration with IBM Marketing Center.

IBM Commerce Composer for WebSphere Commerce

The new Commerce Composer tool in Management Center puts the power to create new store pages and design page layouts in the hands of business users. By using a library of prebuilt layout templates and widgets, business users can quickly create and assemble pages directly in Management Center, without involving IT. New informationLearn more...

IT developers and business partners can develop their own templates and widgets to customize and enrich Commerce Composer capabilities. To facilitate the development of these assets, WebSphere Commerce provides a utility that automatically generates the source code to use as a starting point. By using the utility, along with detailed instructions and tutorials, companies can reduce the time that is required to get their Commerce Composer implementation up and running. New informationLearn more...

Site Administrators can use the Data Load utility to load Commerce Composer data, such as pages, templates, layouts, and layout assignments. Business users can then manage associated business objects in Management Center. New informationLearn more...

Aurora starter store enhancements

Feature Pack 7 offers the following new features and enhancements for the Aurora starter store:
  • The catalog browsing pages in the Aurora starter store demonstrate best practices for Responsive Web Design (RWD). When these pages are viewed on desktop, tablet, or mobile devices, the page content automatically adjusts to fit the screen resolution or device size. New informationLearn more...
  • The store preview offers click-to-edit support for Commerce Composer objects, including pages, layouts, and widgets. New informationLearn more...
  • The store is translated into the Arabic and Turkish languages. Some additional enablement steps are required.
  • The store supports ribbon ads, which are image overlays with text that are displayed over the thumbnail image of catalog entries. Use ribbon ad text to highlight a shared characteristic of the catalog entries, such as Exclusive or Clearance. New informationLearn more...
  • The Aurora starter store companion assets are updated to include a merged use-case document that covers the responsive Aurora starter store pages. Multiple SAR files and use-case documents are no longer required, as all store assets are maintained in the Aurora.sar file. New informationLearn more...

Attribute dictionary enhancements

Category Managers and Product Managers can assign multiple descriptive attribute dictionary attributes to multiple catalog entries at a time. Previously a Category Manager and Product Manager could assign multiple descriptive attributes to only one catalog entry at a time. New informationLearn more...

Data Load utility enhancements

Site Administrators can configure the Data Load utility to include ID resolver information within the data load summary report. Administrators can use this information to help improve the Data Load utility performance. New informationLearn more...

Representational State Transfer (REST) services enhancements

REST services help facilitate the invocation of classic controller commands and the activation of data beans. They aim to provide a framework that is easy to learn and customize. The framework lets you create custom REST resource handlers that invoke controller commands to perform add, update and delete operations, or activate data beans to retrieve data. In addition, REST services can work together with web services in WebSphere Commerce. This is known as REST Interoperability. New informationLearn more...

The WebSphere Commerce REST API is enhanced to facilitate additional storefront services, such as search, command and data bean services.New informationLearn more...

WebSphere Commerce search enhancements

Improved runtime performance in the WebSphere Commerce and WebSphere Commerce search servers. This includes providing IT users the ability to improve the time and effort required to index search content for large catalogs. New informationLearn more...

Improved interoperability between the storefront and REST services. New informationLearn more...

Enhanced index management in the advanced configuration, and logging and tracing enhancements to help identify the root causes of issues. New informationLearn more...

Enhanced SEO parameters to specify how to substitute strings in generated URLs. InvalidName specifies the strings that must be changed, and fixedName specifies the substitution strings to use instead. New informationLearn more...

Integration with IBM Marketing Center

Feature Pack 7 supports Management Center integration with IBM Marketing Center. IBM Marketing Center is a cloud-based, all-in-one solution that combines customer analytics with real-time marketing. By integrating Management Center with IBM Marketing Center, business users can...
  • Open IBM Marketing Center directly from Management Center to use the precision marketing capabilities available with IBM Marketing Center.
  • Export promotion codes with IBM Marketing Center metadata to an export file. Users can then open IBM Marketing Center from Management Center to upload and manage the exported promotion codes.
  • Select a promotion, and open IBM Marketing Center to create a campaign for the selected promotion.
New informationLearn more...

IBM Web Content Manager integration with Management Center

Give Management Center users the ability to manage all WebSphere Commerce content within an integrated content management system. IBM Web Content Manager provides users with rich text editing tools, content workflow, multilingual support, and content pre-rendering. The prebuilt integration uses a punch-out mechanism to give Management Center users direct access to the IBM Web Content Manager user interface for content editing. New informationLearn more...

Database connection troubleshooting

Site administrators can use a database connection validation utility to help troubleshoot problems for utilities and procedures that require a database connection. Site Administrators can use this utility to validate that a database connection can be established to help determine whether the correct input parameters are being used. New informationLearn more...

CKEditor integration with Management Center

Business users now have more editing control when editing rich text with CKEditor. CKEditor is an HTML-based, WYSIWYG editor that offers advanced editing capabilities to simplify the creation of web content. A customized version of CKEditor is embedded in multiple Management Center tools, including the Catalogs, Marketing, Promotions, and Commerce Composer tools. With a simple change to their preferences, business users can switch from the previous Management Center rich text editor to CKEditor. By using CKEditor, business users can:
  • Import different elements, such as tables, lines, and special characters.
  • Use templates as a quick start for adding standardized content.
  • Paste rich text that is directly copied from other editors, such as Microsoft Word.
  • Easily edit content with various capabilities, such as Undo, Redo, and Find and replace.

New informationLearn more...

Additional marketing reference tabs in Management Center

In the Marketing tool, business users can better understand cross-referencing between marketing objects by accessing three new References tabs:
  • For marketing content, the tab lists the activities, e-Marketing Spots, and layouts that use the content.
  • For customer segments, the tab lists the marketing activities and promotions that target the segment.
  • For email templates, the tab lists the dialog and email activities that use the template.